Because I Could Not Stop for Death He Kindly Stopped for Me
by Captain Shamrock
Summary: With the death of her parents Ella has to move in with her closest family relative who happens to be Bruce Wayne. Rated T for violence mild swearing. WARNING GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF DEPRESSION IN LATER CHAPTERS!
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone this story was once Life Changes but I have decided to rewrite the whole thing. Please read the Emily Dickinson poems at the start of each chapter because they set the mood.**

**I own nothing except my OCs**

_We never know how high we are_

_Till we are called to rise;_

_And then, if we are true to plan,_

_Our statures touch the skies._

_The heroism we recite_

_Would be a daily thing,_

_Did not ourselves the cubits warp_

_For fear to be a king._

\- Aspiration by Emily Dickinson

We all often wish for things in this life that we can never get, most people wish for the normal things, fame, money, eternal youth, world domination. It is in fact, one of my wishes, to say that I am most people, but I'm not, I often wish that I was a dog. They don't have the worries we humans do, home work for one. These are the thoughts that run through my head while I watch my blue heeler Murphy bound after a ball that bounced through the crisp autumn leaves. I looked at my watch and took note that the sun would soon set, I whistled for Murphy to come and bent down to pick up his ball and clip the leash onto his collar and started the three block trek back home from the dog park.

I turned the last corner and looked up to gaze at my house in the fading light. In most ways it was a typical suburban house, a light blue two story with white trimmings, a white picket fence, and a small but unkept garden. My mom only gives it the time of day on her days off, if my dad touched it all the plants would probably die, before he married mom he couldn't even keep a fish alive. My home seemed to glow with a warm homey light that promised safety for all those who walked through the threshold. A chilly autumn breeze blew my black hair into my face snapping me out of my daydreaming spell, I shivered deeper into my jacket and opened the gate of the fence. Once inside the fence line I let Murphy off his leash and walked up the four concrete steps and let the both of us inside the house.

As soon as I stepped through the front door the warm air encircled me and my nose was filled with the enticing aroma of fajitas sizzling in a skillet. Murphy clearly smelled it too, because me ran past me and tore into the kitchen his nails clicking on the wood floors all the way, to start his nightly routine of begging for our food, even though his bowl is filled up behind him.

"Hey Ella make it home safe? No trouble I hope?" my dad said as I walked into the kitchen.

"Trouble? Dad this isn't a big city its Brookings nothing happens here." I sighed as I dropped Murphy's ball in his toy basket and took a seat at the table.

"If it's so safe why does your mom have to work late hmm? She's a cop and she certainly didn't give me the opinion that she was doing desk work tonight." He put the finishing touches on the fajitas and started grating cheese "hey do me a favor and grab the sour cream out of the fridge and the tortillas out of the cabinet? Please and thank you,"

I got up to get the last few things out of the fridge and cabinet set them next to my father then went to go kick my boots off and hang my jacket up. Walking back into the kitchen I saw that my dad had finished the cheese so I got two plates out of the dish washer and handed one to him. I grabbed a tortilla and started filling it up taking a seat across from my dad I took a bite, the fantastic taste filled my mouth, he may be bad at taking care of pets and gardening but my dad was a great cook. He is the one who usually does most of the cooking around here my mom being a cop and all she tries to get home but she does work late at least three times a month. He's an architect so he can work from home easily.

"So Dad do you know what Mom is doing tonight?" I asked taking another bite of fajitas.

"She didn't go into details about it she just said there was some weird crime out of town, about half way from Gotham City." He said sounding like he was just asking me to pass the salt. "Hey Ella can you pass me the salt? Also your mom is investigating a weird crime." We then commenced on the standard dinner time questions.

"How was school?"

"Fine."

"Did anything fun happen?"

"Not really."

After finishing dinner I helped my dad clean up then headed up the stairs to my room with Murphy at my heels. I walked down the hall my room was the last door on the right, I opened the door and walked in expertly stepping around the general clutter on the floor while Murphy made himself at home on my bed. I groaned as I gazed at my desk only to find my trigonometry book glaring back at me, I slowly sat down and opened it.

"I guess I can't put it off forever eh Murphy?" all he did was wag his tail in response.

-line—break-

About an hour and a half later I was settling down for bed, going about my standard nightly routine finally settling down with my favorite book, but I found I couldn't concentrate on the words. Why was my mom on a case that was half way to Gotham? Shirley that's out of our little towns jurisdiction and if it was half way in between our town and Gotham why wasn't the Gotham police department handling it? Though I suppose being the city with the highest crime rate in America can make the local police really busy.

I rolled over to turn off the lamp on my bedside table finally resining to try to drift into sleep with way more questions than answers.

**Ok so I know it's not the longest thing you have ever read but it will get longer. Also Sorry but we won't be seeing Bruce in these first couple of chapters so please bare with me.**

**Thank you for reading Best Wishes!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Alright everyone i know this is unspeakably late but I do have an excuse, one thing is the original file corrupted and I lost the whole thing, then when I went to rewrite it and the laptop I use broke, and to be honest it still isn****'****t fixed I just got a new one of my own for my senior year. Once again I****'****m sorry don****'****t hate me.**

**I only own my OCs**

_They shut me up in prose __–_

_As when a little Girl_

_They put me in the closet __–_

_Because they liked me __"__still__" –_

_Still! Could themselves have peeped __–_

_And seen my Brain __– __go round __–_

_They might as wise have lodged a Bird_

_For Treason __– __in the Pound __–_

_Himself has but to will_

_And easy as a Star_

_Abolish his Captivity __–_

_And laugh __– __No more have I-_

\- XXXI Emily Dickinson

I was startled out of my slumber by a shrill beeping sound that filled the room, I groaned and rolled over to turn it off and saw that it was _7:45. _I already have two tardies in that class if I get one more I get detention, I thought Fridays where suppose to be laid back. I got dressed and packed my schoolbag in a hurry and raced down stairs, grabbed a poptart and the lunch my dad had packed the night before then dashed out the door to the driveway where my car was parked.

"MOTHER EFF!" keys keys where were my keys?! I looked around in my bag frantically when realization dawned on me, I dropped my bag in the gravel and ran back into the house, up the stairs and grabbed the keys off my desk then dashed back to returned to my car. I quickly jammed the keys into the ignition and prayed the car would start on the first time, there was no time for gentle negotiation today. I let out a sigh of relief when it cloaked to life, then raced to school as fast as i could without being pulled over. I turned into the school parking lot only to discover the some jerk with a big truck parked in the middle of the line taking up two spots. "He's just asking for me to key that thing." I mumble to myself. I park in a spot further back and make a mad dash to the main school building, one flight of stairs and two hallways later I burst into my first class sitting down only moments before the first bell rang.

My teacher Mr. Roman shot a glare my way for the close call, Mr. Roman was the most disliked teacher in the school and had a shocking resemblance to Lurch from the Addams Family. He walked/shuffled to the front of the class and cleared his throat demanding our attention. "We will begin on page 298…." the rest of the class was a blur of hurried note taking while Mr. Roman droned on in the same monotone voice just like every other day. The bell finally rang out our salvation from this torture, but of course he had to have the last word, "remember the rough draft of your research papers are due next week." I quickly left the room to go to my next class and sanctuary the art room.

I entered the art room and inhaled the familiar combination of paint, ink, dust, creativity, idiots and just a faint hint of mold. I sat my stuff down beside one of the large easels that dotted the art room in a semicircle facing the still life in the center of the room. As I crossed the room to get my paint supplies out of a cabinet when my friend Autumn skipped to my side "Hey I heard you had to get a running start this morning."

"Yah Mr. Addams Family Values wasn't so pleased about it," I said as I started putting colors on my palate.

She snorted out a laugh and checked her spiked up bubble gum pink hair fussing over it even though it looked fine. "You have a point but he seemed especially irritated today though."

I shrugged making my way back to my seat "Well you never know maybe one of his cats ran away or something, you couldn't really blame them if it did." With a laugh she joined me back at our seats.

It seems to me you'll always find the same types of people in an art room. There's the a group of people that needed another credit so they took art, they're loud and disruptive and draw stick figures or Stewie from Family Guy. Then there's a small group of veterans like Autumn and I who have taken the class since the beginning, who are content popping in their headphones to block out the first group and paint to their hearts content not bothering to turn anything in because whats the point they've been in this class for years. Lastly there's the group in-between the two, who actually want to learn, probably the only ones who do the work and turn them in for a daily grade. Weird.

The bell once again signaled our time here was up, quickly cleaning up my space i moved on. The rest of the morning passed at a snails pace because the only thing I was concerned about was food, if it wasn't food i wasn't interested simple as that.

At last lunch had arrived and I bite into my sandwich with gusto, Autumn sat down across from me and looked down at the various ziplock bags filled with food that surrounded me. "Wow that is enough food to feed a small army." she said shaking her head in amazement.

"We've been friends for years this can't be the first time you've noticed this?" I said raising my eyes up from my food.

"Well no bu-" she was cut off by our friend John making a crash landing on our bench, his momentum carrying him over to hip check Autumn off the bench entirely.

"Say you love me" he said out of breath from the running start he had gotten.

"I hate you." Autumn groaned as she picked herself off the ground rubbing her side, and unceremoniously pushed John out of her spot.

"Yes well soon you'll be thanking me."

"Why?" I said in an almost board tone. Every week John had something up his sleeve that was suppose to be fun but nearly always turned out as a disaster or just plain weird.

Almost on cue Autumn chimed in "this better not be like last time."

"It won't be like last time I promise" he said excitedly.

"Ok John I'll bite what adventure have you concocted for us this week?" I said finishing off my sandwich.

"Alright get ready for this-"

"Just spit it out John" Autumn said.

"Fine impatient, The Wretched and Divines is playing in Gotham City tomorrow night and I got us tickets!"

"WHAT!" Autumn and I say in unison.

"They never come anywhere near here!" I say

"How did you even get tickets?" Autumn exclaimed.

"My dad is the venues manager so he went ahead and got some tickets for us!"

"Wait wait wait John, you're sure these are legitimate tickets? Not creepy back ally scalper tickets?" I said opening up my bag of chips.

"Ella you've met my dad right? He wouldn't even know where to look for a scalper, and he works in Gotham. You know just the city with the highest crime rate in the world, you don't go looking down allies unless you want to end up in one."

"Alright I guess you have a point."

A shrill ringing filled the cafeteria signaling us to scatter off to our fifth hour. "I gotta go text me if you guys can go, see yah tomorrow." John called as he hurried off at a ridiculously high speed disappearing into the mass of people, just as he had come.

Autumn cocked her head to the side "how do you think he does that?"

"I think it will forever be a mystery to us mortals." I said gathering my things up, it was time to brave the mob.

The rest of the day was filled with notes, bored doodles and watching a fly buzz around the room waiting for it to land on the corner of the teachers podium but it never does. At long last we where real eased for the weekend, and more importantly the concert tomorrow. I walked to my car and loaded my stuff up into the back seat, after a couple tries my car sputtered to life once again head home.

**I know it****'****s not the most exciting chapter, things will pick up in chapter three i promise, still no Bruce yet sorry. Oh also there is a small Supernatural reference as well as a small Office reference as well.**

**Oh and a special thanks to my friend Jackie for the art room descriptions.**

**Best wishes ~ Captain Shamrock **


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